I recently attended at a San Francisco Professional Food Society networking event at Yield. Yield is a new wine bar here in San Francisco that emphasizes the “green” side of wine. Here is a description from their website:

“Yield is the first “green” wine bar in San Francisco…We are committed to supporting sustainable winemaking and agriculture, as well as family owned and operated wineries. All of the wines featured on our rotating wine list are environmentally friendly — they are made from grapes that are farmed organically and biodynamically. While some of our featured wineries even receive certification, all of them are as focused on making the best wine possible as they are on making it in the most environmentally conscious way.”

It made me wonder, how does “green” or organic factor when people buy wine? Is this just a San Francisco phenomenon? As someone who buys all organic meats and produce, organic is not a huge factor for me when it comes to wine. Many wines on the market today are organic or a product of sustainable farming, they just don’t put it on the label. For me, “Is it good” comes first, then “Does it have value,” and “Does it come from a small production winemaker,” and finally, “Is it ‘green’?” I would say it is definitely on my radar, but would not sacrifice flavor for it.

I ended up posting this article on a few different boards…. Chowhound, Sugar Inc and Facebook a few weeks ago. The response I received back was that most agreed with me. On Chowhound, many people went into a longer discussion as to what “green” was and the carbon footprint of a wine bottle.